Abstract
In modern democracies, religious freedoms are fundamental. Thus, as Russia is shedding its Communist ideology and emerging as a democratic state, religious freedoms have become essential. With this in mind, I traveled to Moscow and Nizhniy-Novgorod to attend the Experts Conference on Religious Freedoms in Russia and to study the position of religious minorities in Russian society. My assistant was Alexei Danchenkov, Russian national and a legal analyst and spokesman for the Church of Scientology. In attendance at the conference were academics, journalists, state servants, political advisers, and religious freedoms advocates from both Russia and the United States. The conference provided an open forum to discuss the state of religious freedoms in the Russian Federation and allowed U.S. experts to share the American experience. Moreover, because the Church of Scientology works extremely hard on religious freedom issues, I was provided with much information the struggles of religious groups around the world.
